Luke 6:1-11

Discussion Questions

1. Do you have any “favorite” rules or traditions from the Bible, or that have been derived from it, that you tend to enforce on yourself and others? Is it possible you’re in danger of missing the point as the Pharisees did in this passage?
2. Are you tired? What is making you weary and in need of God’s offered rest?
3. The passage and teaching remind us of what Sabbath rest truly means. How can you ensure that your Sabbath involves meaningful activities that refresh your spirit and serve others?

Transcript

Hey, grace to you this morning, friends. We do study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel. If you’d like a paper copy, just lift up your hand, and someone will bring one along to you. It will be good to have a copy of the Bible in front of you. Whether it’s paper or electronic doesn’t matter. We’re going to look at Luke, Chapter 6 this morning, but also go through a little survey of the New and the Old Testament. Whether you’re watching online from Plano, Texas or Warsaw, Poland or from Pleasant Garden, North Carolina; welcome. Glad you’re here to worship with us. May the Lord be with you wherever you might be today. I am also delighted to have the students here with us today.

You may not know it, but my wife and I met while in college in Oklahoma City. That’s where she’s from, and I lived there for a few years. I went to college here in Nashville at Trevecca Nazarene University for a few years, but then I moved to Oklahoma City to start a church with my father, and I enrolled at a university near that area. That’s where my wife and I met. What I wasn’t told when I moved to this area is that there’s a small town near where I would live that had its own police department that, let’s say, was scrupulous and exacting in the way that they applied their traffic laws.

A few months after moving, I was driving through this little town and was going over the speed limit, and rightfully so, an officer pulled me over, and he asked for my driver’s license. When he saw my driver’s license was an out-of-state license, he asked me to get out of the car. That’s interesting. I mentioned I was a student, and in that state, you can have an out-of-state license if you’re a student. I’m sure the original intent of this officer was good, but on that day, he wasn’t interested in any explanation, any nuance. So, this routine traffic stop resulted in him taking me in his patrol car to the little police station where I was cuffed and had a mug shot taken, fingerprinted, and then I was put into a holding cell – where I took a nap.

Finally, my folks arrived. That was my one phone call to my father. My folks arrived, and we went on our way. Thankfully, soon thereafter, the judge in this little town apologized for the whole situation. I did have to pay for the speeding ticket, as I should have. But the officer, for whatever reason that day, misunderstood, misapplied and misused the rules that were intended to keep the community safe. His scrupulous adherence to a rule that he thought he knew actually wasted his time. It wasted my time and the resources of this little town. I learned a few things that day. One, don’t drive over the speed limit. Two, if you ever move, change your driver’s license as soon as you possibly can. But also, it is easy to miss the point, to miss the forest for the trees, to only look at what’s right in front of me and not actually ask any deeper questions behind.

If you’ve been with us in our study of the gospel according to Luke of the past few weeks, you’ve started to notice the tension between Jesus and the religious experts, most of the time called the Pharisees and the scribes. The words, the miracles, the power of Jesus were on full display. They could see it, they could hear it, but their response was not one of worship or even curiosity, most of the time, but instead, antipathy, willful unbelief, and opposition to Him. As we study, Luke will continue to see that tension escalate, and we’ll see this actually culminate in the sham trial, the beating, and the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus.

But when it comes to these accounts that we read in Luke, every thinking person in this room and watching online should pay attention to what Jesus is saying and what He’s doing. We should pay attention with seriousness. I’m talking to those who have heard these stories their entire lives, like me, but also for those who are unfamiliar with the Bible and what the Bible tells us about who Jesus really is. We should pay attention to His claims, His power, and authority to forgive sins; we read about that a few weeks ago. His power and authority to heal broken bodies and to know the thoughts of men, those kinds of things all reveal something about who He is.

The religious experts of His day either weren’t paying attention or they were just stubbornly refusing to believe what their Scriptures pointed to, and that was Jesus. They missed the point. I pray the Spirit of God might move among us, Village Chapel and those who are watching online, that we might not miss the point. That we might not miss the compassion, the beauty, the grace, the mercy, the power, the authority, the life that’s on offer in the person of Jesus. May we not miss the point. I invite you, if you would, turn to Luke, Chapter 6. We’ll start with verse one this morning.

Let me pray if you’d allow me for God’s illumination as we get started this morning. Would you pray with me? Father, open Your Word to us and open us to Your Word. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear the grace You have for each of us today, and by the power of Your Spirit, show us the glory, the mercy, the grace, the rest on offer through Your Son Jesus, in whose matchless name we all said amen.

Luke 6:1, “On a Sabbath, while He was going through the grain fields, [That’s Jesus] His disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are You doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?'” Let’s pause here for just a moment. If you remember, earlier we learned that the Pharisees from Jerusalem and the surrounding cities have all become, essentially spies, trying to figure out who this man Jesus really is, and really, we’re going to see their motivations even more fully on display here in this text.

There’s an absurdity to this particular story. So, Jesus and His disciples are eating a snack in a grain field, and the Pharisees are following so close that they’re in the grain field with Him. Do you think that’s absurd? I do. I’m just imagining the Pharisees popping up in the middle of the corn field, popping up, and they have their little legal book, “Ah, paragraph 10.3, unlawful.” So, there’s an absurdity to what’s going on here. Now look what Jesus does, how He answers this question, verse 3, “And Jesus answered them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who are with him, how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat and also gave it to those with him.’ And He said to them, ‘The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.'”

Now look with me there again in verse 3, “Jesus answers them.” Remember who these folks are. These are the religious experts. These are Bible scholars, and Jesus says, “Haven’t you read your Bibles? Do you remember the story?” He’s referencing a story here from 1 Samuel 21, but then the way that He ends in this particular pericope, “The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.” We’ll come back to that later, but that is a very big claim, a big statement that Jesus makes to answer these Pharisees. Verse 6, this is another story, “On another Sabbath, He entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered, and the scribes and the Pharisees watched Him, to see whether He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse Him.”

Now we see the motivation of the Pharisees, not that this man might be healed from his infirmity, but that they might trap Jesus. That’s the motivation here. Verse 8, “But He [Jesus] knew their thoughts, and He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Come and stand here.'” Now I think what’s going on here is, Jesus wants this man to come front and center in this synagogue. He wants everyone in the room, including these Pharisees, to see exactly what’s about to happen, no doubt about what’s going to happen here in a moment. So, He says, “’Come and stand here.’” And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them [to the Pharisees] ‘I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?’ And after looking around at them all, He said to him, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he did so, and his hand was restored. But they [the Pharisees] were filled with fury, and they discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

The Gospels of Matthew and Mark make this a little bit fuller. Not only were they discussing among themselves what they were going to do with Jesus; they were discussing how they might kill Him. That’s the kind of darkness that was in the hearts of these legalist Pharisees. Look with me at verse 9, Jesus actually poses a question to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” Jesus knew their hearts, and He asked these questions. He poses this question to provoke them to think. You notice this question leaves no room for neutrality. There’s no middle ground. Good or evil, which one is it? Their distortion of the law had blinded them so much that they missed the higher purpose of the Sabbath, which was rest and freedom for people. It also neglected the other parts of the law, which talk about mercy and love for neighbors. This is a reading from the Word of God from Luke, Chapter 6.

So here we have two stories, I think, that illustrate the conflict between the self-righteous legalism of the religious elite and the life-giving compassion, wisdom, and mercy of Jesus and His kingdom. At the surface level, the tension that we witness here seems to be about the Sabbath; its purpose, how to honor it, how to observe it. So, let’s take a step back for a minute and talk about the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a principle, and it was a pattern instituted by God Himself in the creation account on the seventh day: Sabbath rest. It was set apart as holy before sin ever entered the picture, when there was shalom-perfect relationship between God and man and the rest of creation. We are given the gift of work and rest in this pattern of Sabbath rest, one in seven.

If you would like, turn to Genesis, Chapter 2. We’ll also put it up on the screen, but if you have a copy of the Bible in front of you, Genesis 2:2, “And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and He made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation.”

Now I think that’s interesting. What does that mean? That God had rested? It certainly doesn’t mean that God was tired. God doesn’t get fatigued. God doesn’t need a nap like I do about this time. “He neither sleeps nor slumbers,” the psalmist says in Psalm 121, but if you know your Bibles, God had just finished the work of creation. Ex nihilo, out of nothing, burst forth time and light and the animals, water, land, and at the pinnacle of His creation, man and woman who bear the image of God, and He looks at all of His creation and He says “It’s good,” and then He says “It’s very good.”

So, He wasn’t tired, but He was delighting, He was satisfied, He was pleased with His creation, and He was enjoying it as a painter steps back after the last brushstroke of a masterpiece just to enjoy the work. As those who bear His image, we are to do what our Father has done in both work and rest as a pattern. The pattern of setting aside one in seven days to cease work, to enjoy the fruits of our labor, to commune with God and with one another, that is a gift. It’s a part of how we were designed to flourish.

Now, as we know, our story in the next chapter in Genesis, sin enters the world. Adam and Eve listened to the voice of the evil one through the serpent, and the good gift of work and rest are broken, and they are distorted. So, in this broken world, as we move through our storyline, the storyline of the Bible, the pattern of the Sabbath has given to us again in the moral law at Sinai through Moses, the 10 Commandments. The Sabbath day was the 4th of the 10 Commandments, and it’s reiterated again by Moses in Deuteronomy 5:15. In fact, I invite you to turn there, Deuteronomy 5:15, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” We have the language of slavery and freedom and God’s initiative in saving His people.

So, take a step back for a minute. We have the Sabbath pattern established in creation before sin, and then we have, by God’s grace, the pattern of Sabbath given to fallen men and women in the law for our good, and it’s all connected to God’s redeeming work for His people in history. The people of God were rescued out of slavery to be His people. Listen, a slave has no rest from his labor, does he or she? A slave has no rest, but sons and daughters do. So, we can see Sabbath connected to all these parts of the storyline of God’s redemptive work and history.

Now, Sabbath rest, of course, points forward to an even deeper reality that we fully see in Jesus. Do you remember the story in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus looks out and He calls to those who are wearied by sin and by the heavy burden of legalism and He says, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you…” Let’s say it together, “… rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.” And in Matthew, what follows that offer of rest from Jesus, is the same story we’re reading in the Gospel of Luke today. The Pharisees had turned the Sabbath into slavery. They had turned the good gift of rest into this heavy labor, and Jesus corrects what I might call the counterfeit application of the law by declaring, “I am the lord of the Sabbath.” If you look there at verse 5, He ends that first story, “I am the Lord. The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.” The Son of Man was His favorite self-reference.

So put another way, He was saying, “I am master over Sabbath. I designed it. Sabbath is about Me. It points to Me. I’m not abolishing Sabbath. I’m recovering its purpose and its power. True and lasting rest can only be found in Me.” And as a recovering Pharisee myself, can I get a witness? There’s much for me to learn from Jesus this morning. I’d love for us to consider a couple of things we see in our text here. Number one, we see the heavy labor of legalism: Sabbath had become slavery.

Sinclair Ferguson is one of my favorite Bible teachers. He’s helpful here in describing the practice of Sabbath, “Externally, [Sabbath] meant ceasing from ordinary tasks in order to meet with God. Internally, it involved ceasing from all self-sufficiency in order to rest in God’s grace.” The religious experts had actually gotten both the external and the internal purposes wrong. Did you see that? They had missed the point. Externally, they had turned the Sabbath rest into slavish adherence to these rules and these regulations. Internally, they had become self-sufficient and smug in their rule keeping. So much so, they could not see their own need for a Savior who was right in front of them, and they couldn’t even address the need of the man with a withered hand. That’s what legalism does, makes us feel superior, better than others who don’t follow the rules with the same cold adherence. It makes us senseless, as some translations say. We lose our minds. We can’t even see our own need for grace. It blinds us to the needs of others.

It can also make us petty and cruel, like the elder brother. Remember the story of the prodigal son? It’s the son at the end of that story, the elder brother, who also got angry because he was a rule keeper, and it made him entitled. He demanded something of the father rather than loving the heart of the father. Look with me at verse 1 of Chapter 6 again, “On a Sabbath, while He was going through the grain fields, His disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?'”

Now, Luke is a theologian. He’s also a historian, and he’s helpful in giving us this description here. He says they plucked, they rubbed, and they ate the grain. The religious establishment of the day had 39 categories of work and 6 subcategories of work that were forbidden on the Sabbath day. That’s where they had gotten to, and I think the Pharisees had essentially put these on par with the Word of God. So, plucking the grain, the disciples had done the work of reaping or harvesting, rubbing with their hand, they had done the work of threshing the grain, and eating the grain, they had done the work of grinding or preparing the grain. So, the Pharisees whoosh, pop up in the middle of the field with a little law book, “No threshing, grinding, preparing.” That’s the kind of cold adherence to these rules they were using to try to trap Jesus.

But the answer that Jesus gives is so revealing, I think. He first tells a story about King David from 1 Samuel 21 about the breaking of some ceremonial regulations in order to address real human need. At that moment, King David and his crew were hungry. There was real human need there. In addressing these objections, Jesus is actually putting Himself on par with King David, the King David who was a promise to a kingdom that would not end. The Pharisees must have been seething at this point. We don’t see that here, but I think they were probably seething at that point. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He continues, and He says the Son of Man is the lord of the Sabbath. Oh, that made them mad. The Son of Man, a Messianic title from the book of Daniel, the self-reference that Jesus used more than any other. Do you see what he’s doing here? Not only is Jesus saying that, “I’m on par with King David,” He’s saying He’s greater than King David. Jesus is claiming to have the authority of God Himself.

The Pharisees knew the history of the Sabbath, that it was rooted in creation. They knew that it was established in the Ten Commandments. Jesus flips the script. He flips upside down their religious framework, and now we start to see behind their anger. They were the religious experts. Jesus was getting up into their business, and Jesus says, in essence, “You’ve missed the point. My definition of the Sabbath doesn’t leave people hungry or hurting. You’ve missed the heart of the law. You’ve missed the heart of God.” Jesus does not abolish the good gift of the Sabbath pattern, but rather He’s guarding it from the distortions and the mountain of burdens that had been added to it, not the use of the Sabbath, but its abuse.

The word of Jesus always sets things right. We sang it earlier, “The word of power that will never fail. Let the truth prevail over unbelief.” The word of Jesus always sets things right. It puts things back in order; it can heal a withered hand, and it can set us free from self-righteousness and our own attempts at what I would call self-salvation. I’m a recovering Pharisee, and I think most of us are looking for the right rules to follow just enough so that God might love me, or perhaps even worse, follow the rules so closely that I think I can demand something of God. I’m entitled. And the Word of God cuts right through it. Charles Spurgeon said, “The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit, which makes men look to themselves for salvation.”

So, in the second story, I think we see even more fully what legalism had done to the hearts of these Pharisees, these scribes, the religious experts. Their hearts had become calloused to the human need around them, coldly disregarding the man with a withered hand, indifference to their religious system. Their self-righteousness has turned to cruelty at this point, and it only will get worse. It’s what legalism does. Michael Reeves says this so well, “Like wax, the heart takes the shape of that which warms it.” In other words, legalism keeps you a slave and makes you feel superior. Makes you senseless. It makes you petty and cruel. In legalism, your heart is not warmed by the love of the Father. Your heart is warmed by your own external attempts to try and earn or cajole His love, His favor, or His blessings. The Apostle Paul would tell us in 2 Timothy that this kind of counterfeit has an appearance of godliness, but it denies the power of God. Oh Lord, keep us from that.

Grace, though, in opposition to legalism, sets us free. In Jesus, our heart is warmed by the love of the Father. When we love Him, we can walk freely in the power of the Spirit as He conforms us more and more into His image. Legalism keeps us in an endless cycle of activity, more and more and more. But the grace of Jesus offers deep rest, secure in the love of God, not as a slave but as a son or a daughter.

Number two, I think we see unending rest available to us in Jesus: Sabbath points to salvation. So, as we’ve been talking about it this morning, have you considered this idea of rest? What is it? How does the Bible describe it? I think we can approach it biblically at two different levels. One, rest is certainly a ceasing of our labors temporarily. The pattern of Sabbath rest is for our good, and when that pattern isn’t followed, it often leads to an idolatry of our work, and we see that. I’ve seen it in my own heart. We become a slave to our work. So, it is good for us to take a break. God’s law is good for us.

Vacations, by the way, are great, but they’re not going to do it. A healthy pattern of work and rest in the ordinary week is a gift to us. The practice of ceasing our labors regularly is a reminder that I don’t hold up my little end of the universe. God does. So, rest is actually an act of faith, but at a deeper level, I think that there’s a different kind of rest, a stillness that doesn’t come through a day off. The stories this morning on the surface level seem to be about the Sabbath, but below the surface, the question is really about who Jesus is, what He was doing in that story, what He has done for us today, and what He’s going to do.

Look with me, the man with the withered hand, verse 10, “And after looking around at them all.” So, Jesus had just posed the question, and it says He looked at them all. I’m just imagining a really awkward silence as the piercing eye of Jesus looks around the room at the Pharisees, “But He tells this man, ‘Stretch out your hand.'” He couldn’t. A withered hand cannot be stretched out, but Jesus calls this man to do this thing, and he does it by faith, and Jesus does the work of restoring the hand, putting back the way it was supposed to be. The word of Jesus always puts things back the way they’re supposed to be. The Pharisees couldn’t see it, but their frenetic or frantic attempts at law keeping could never satisfy a holy God. They thought it could, but it could never satisfy a holy God. They could not keep the law, and you and I cannot either.

Now, listen, legalism, and I’m actually going to say lawlessness, is at the other end of the spectrum, this idea that I have no laws, I can do whatever I want. Both of those spectrums will crush us. Both of those will make us slaves because we’re serving not God the Father but another master altogether. They both make us slaves, either the letter of the law or of the pleasures of the world or my own whims. Both are suffocating and both are exhausting, and Jesus as the author of the gospel, says, “Come to me. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

The stormy waters of a soul that runs frantically from one thing to another in search of the love of the Father; those stormy waters are stilled with Jesus on the cross who took our sin Himself and said, “It is finished. It is finished.” In His great love for us, God Himself has done all that needs to be done. Some of us in the room, including myself, needed to hear that this week and this morning. Even those who have followed Jesus for decades can fall into the temptation of working for God as if He’s a slave driver, instead of delighting in Him as a Father, walking in His ways as a Father. To you and to me, He says, “Come rest.”

Christina Rossetti, 19th-century English poet, in one of my favorite prayers, she says, “O Lord, who is the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, who beholds Your weak creatures, weary of labor, weary of pleasure, weary of hope deferred, weary of self, in Your abundant compassion and unutterable tenderness bring us, we ask You, unto Your rest.” Do you need that kind of rest this morning? Maybe you need that surface-level rest as well, but that deep soul rest, whether you’re a legalist or you’re over here far from the law of God. Maybe you’re like the Pharisee, and you’re working tirelessly instead of delighting in Him. Maybe you’re light years away, you’re working tirelessly nonetheless, trying to find something, and Jesus calls out and says, “No, to you, come. You who are weary, who are frantic, come and you’ll find rest in Me. Rest for your souls.” Jesus calls to all. Do you need rest this morning? It’s on offer.

Let’s pray together. Father, we confess this morning, I confess, that I’ve been satisfied with mere discipline rather than delight in You. We know that Your law is good. We are hungry for its wisdom and in great need of Your Spirit’s illumination. Show us how to walk freely in Your ways, and we pray for the liberating freedom of Christ in this room here today by the power of Your Spirit. Freedom not to do just what we want, but freedom to follow You as Your beloved children. Many are worn out this morning from failures around us, within us, or both, and we come to You this morning with nothing but our need. We ask for a fresh measure of Your grace, of mercy, of rest in this place and in our households today in this week. In the precious, tender, loving, kind name of Your Son, Jesus, we all said amen.

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs:

“King Forevermore”
“On Christ the Solid Rock”
“Speak O Lord”
“Jesus What a Friend for Sinners”
“O Praise the Name”
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois

All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #200369

Call To Worship: At The Cross

Most merciful God, thank You for sending to us Your Son, Jesus. We remember this day His redeeming death, that we might stand forgiven at the cross. Thank You for sending to us Your Son, Jesus, to whom we belong, in life and in death. He bore our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Most holy God, thank You for sending to us Your Son, Jesus, who became sin for us and suffered the punishment due to us, that we might stand forgiven at the cross. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.

Confession:

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against You this day, in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole hearts; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us, that we may delight in Your will, and walk in Your ways, to the glory of Your Name. Grant to Your people pardon and peace, that in Your great mercy, we may be forgiven all our sins, and serve You with a quiet and contrite heart. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Classic Prayer: John Wallace Suter, Jr, 1890-1977

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of man, you did not come to be served, but to serve. Give us grace to lay aside all our vanity, clothe us with your power, and crown us with your humility, that finally, in the glory of serving, we may stand beside your throne, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you reign, one God, now and forever.

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